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Bend
Council modifies MOU for Juniper Ridge
Hopefully this won't be
too confusing: The Bend City Council on Wednesday agreed
to modify a crucial section of a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with the master developer the
council plans to work with, Juniper Ridge Partners, LLC,
before the council adopted the MOU for Juniper Ridge on
Wednesday. The crucial section, paragraph 11.5, is the
only part of the MOU that is binding between the city
and the developer. It would have required the city to
negotiate with only Juniper Ridge Partners for a year,
and Juniper Ridge Partners would have had the right to
match any other offer from a competing developer for a
year after that. The council will negotiate with Juniper
Ridge Partners on new language for paragraph 11.5. Bend
Mayor Bill Friedman said the city plans to include the
Bend Chamber in discussions before adopting a Draft
Development Agreement with the master developer.
Councilors Chris Telfer and Dave Malkin voted against
adopting the MOU, with Malkin urging his colleagues to
address several concerns the Bend Chamber has with the
MOU before voting for it. "The Chamber board has
said, 'Hey, we're concerned about this, and they know a
hell of a lot more about business than I do,' " Malkin
said.
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Four positions available
on Bend Chamber Board of Directors
Would you like to serve
on the Bend Chamber Board of Directors? Requirements are
that you are a Chamber member and have the time to
devote to Chamber board responsibilities and Chamber
activities. Four positions will be up for election in
November. Terms are for two years and begin in January
2007. If you're interested, please send a cover letter
to Bend Chamber President and CEO Mike Schmidt, either
by mail at 777 NW Wall St., Ste. 200, Bend, OR, 97701,
or
mike@bendchamber.org
, no later than Sept. 8.
Interested candidates also need to answer these three
questions: 1) Why do you want to be a Director of the
Bend Chamber of Commerce? 2) What are your
qualifications to serve as a Director? 3) What are the
top three issues you feel the Chamber should address if
you are elected to serve as a Director? Any questions
may be directed to Mike Schmidt at 382-3221.
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Summer business mostly
good
Last week's survey
question was, "Has your summer business met
expectations? If not, why not?" For the most part,
businesses report that things are going well. Some
responses:
"This summer has been one of the busiest ever. We have
more people working for us than any previous year and
still the search continues (for employees). I wish it
would correct itself and slow down about 10 percent or
more in revenues, then we could catch up. I have a
feeling that may be happening soon.."
"Yes it has. Being a new business this year we really
didn't know what to expect, but we did come very close
to the forecast of our business plan."
"This year's business was not up to expectations. Not
sure if it's the price of gas, lack of activities or
increased competition, but there has been a noticeable
lag."
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It's pretty much official:
Housing market softening across U.S.
Recent statistics are
confirming what most housing officials have known for
some time: The once red-hot housing market is slowing
down, more so in some areas of the country than others.
The National Association of Realtors reported this week
that sales nationwide were down 7 percent in the second
quarter of this year compared to the same period of
2005, with the biggest declines in Arizona (down 26.9
percent), Florida (minus 26.7 percent) and California
(down 25.3 percent). Alaska led states with an increase
in sales (up 48.6 percent), followed by Arkansas (up
17.9 percent) and Texas (up 11.3 percent). In the West,
the existing-home sales level of 1.41 million units was
14.7 percent lower than the second quarter of 2005.
After Alaska, the best performance in the region was in
New Mexico, where existing-home sales rose 6.2 percent
from a year earlier; Wyoming sales increased 5.7 percent
while Montana rose 5.2 percent. Oregon sales rose 3.6
percent.
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Workforce Forecast Breakfast
scheduled for September 14
"The Emerging Workforce
- Implications for Leaders, Managers and Policy
Architects" is the title of a breakfast being presented
by WorkSource Central Oregon and sponsored by Columbia
River Bank from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14
at St. Charles Medical Center. Topics will include
demographic forces that are reshaping the workforce and
how to develop leaders and recruit and retain workers.
The speaker will be Maryann Billington, Senior Vice
President for the Professional Development Group at Lore
International Institute. Cost is $150 for a corporate
table of 8 or $20 per person. Information: Dayna
388-3236 or
dayna@edcoinfo.com.
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This week's survey question
What should the Bend
Chamber do now as the city moves forward on negotiations
with a master developer on Juniper Ridge? Please e-mail
your responses to:
jeff@bendchamber.org.
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